Paradigm Lost: Learning and Literacy in the Digital Divide

Are students learning from their coursework or just “training” Chat GPT and other AI programs to regurgitate the material without even trying?Technology has taken over higher education, and we not only allow but also encourage it. From Google to ChatGPT, technology threatens to sweep students into dependency and undermine their critical thinking and communication skills, not to mention their autonomy and “story.”Prof. Sapp helps educators, students, parents and the broader public to see the dangers and recognize possible remedies, in the effort to keep education human centered and the guardian of individual and cultural literacy—and freedom. In her work, Prof. Sapp chronicles and critiques the efforts of educators and students to “cross the Digital Divide” from print to digital paradigms. She especially reaches out to the mentors, the gatekeepers of education, to ask hard questions and find positive pathways even as we hand over our classrooms to technology. The author draws heavily from her own experience “crossing the divide”; she brings in scholarship, literature review, literary analysis, her students’ perspectives and even fiction to cover the layers and argument angles of this major paradigm shift. Prof. Sapp acknowledges the importance of new digital literacies and provides practical suggestions and constructive techniques, describing classroom exercises she has found to work well, engaging students and navigating the challenges as devices invade the classroom and the medium indeed becomes the message. Read more